Archive for Germany (Third Reich)

Patience is what you need in this hobby. And after ten years of looking, my patience is rewarded with an MP-38 Machinenpistole. Just about as nice as can be given that I am in Canada, this is an all matching Erfurter Maschinenfabrik B. Geipel GmbH (ERMA) made example dating from 1940. An old dewat, it is what we call “cock and click” in that the action can be cocked and released with a pull on the trigger. Very hard to find compared to the MP-40 that I have here. All I need to find for this now is a better sling and a slab sided early magazine as the one in it is the later MP38u40 type.

These pistols were produced for seagoing vessels in the German Kriegsmarine, where the lack of a steady platform meant that the additional handhold needed to be provided. Early versions were manufactured in stainless steel, later ones in anodized aluminium. This example has the eeu code for the manufacturer Lieferungsgemeinschaft Westthüringer Werkzeug u. Metallwarenfabriken GmbH in Wek Sömmerda, Thuringia. With a production run just over 4000, and many of these ending up on the Atlantic floor, they are super rare. This example is missing its selector switch, which I am working on getting 3d printed.

After the fall of Belgium in 1940, the FN factory was taken over by the Germans and this pistol, the Browning Hi Power P-35, was produced under occupation. This example is WaA marked 140 as is one of the magazines. That magazine also has the serif U mark. This pistol takes 9mm Parabellum ammunition like the Luger and Walther P-38.

Just brilliant. I recently bought another G43 from a friend and it had come to him with this scope mount and scope on it. At the time he didn’t want to part with it but in the meantime, something else has caught his eye and I get to be the new lucky owner.

The scope is marked for ddx, Voigtländer & Sohn AG, Optisches Gerät of Braunschweig. The Zielfernrohre ZF4 has the green triangle meaning it is greased for a hot climate. The mount itself was manufactured by Walther and is stamped with their WaA359 mark.

Finally, after three years of searching, I find a 20 round magazine for my MP-28/II submachine gun. These guns are incredibly rare in Canada which makes the magazines even harder to track down. I looked all over, including in the Balkans before finally finding one in a town 60km from me, go figure. The trade in a carpark felt remarkably like a drug deal, but there you go. This one is marked for the manufacturer, Haenel, no WaA’s so definitely prewar, likely pre-Nazi.

I have one other Mauser K98’s, here. That one is from a Czech factory and is all matching except for the lower stock. I wanted one of these rifles, mid-war, German factory and no need for the word “except” when describing it. Through a friend of a friend, this one appeared. A Sauer made 1943 K98, no issues, all there, lovely.